The Red Sox apparently are leading the race for free agent first basemen Mark Teixeira according to the Boston Globe.
Two GMs who were involved in the Teixeira talks both felt the Red Sox had a leg up.
“They have the highest offer on the table,” said one of the GMs.
One of the GMs responded to Red Sox owner John Henry’s comment to the Boston Herald that the Sox would not go 10 years on any player with, “No one’s going there [10 years].”“We all have limits,” Henry said in an e-mail to the Associated Press yesterday. “Eight years is a very long time in baseball and everywhere else. Baseball as a whole has not yet been hit by the financial crisis, but it will. The degree is in question and won’t be answered for a while.”
But who knows?The Yankees were willing to go two more years than anyone else on CC Sabathia, so why not on Teixeira?
One of the GMs concluded the Yankees were the fly in the ointment, but “Manny [Ramírez is] going to the Yankees.”
I’ll say this at least 34 more times before a deal is eventually in place but the Yankees are only in the Teixeira-talks to drive up the price for the Red Sox. They want to put the screws to their biggest rival before they turn their attention to Manny, who apparently no team has an interest in at his asking price.
In the end, Teixeira will wind up in Boston and Manny will either remain a Dodger or become a rich Yankee.
